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For the similarly named historical event, see Boston Massacre. |
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The Quincy Massacre was a pivotal event in the history of the Commonwealth Minutemen in 2287 where they failed to repel an invasion of the town of Quincy by the Gunners, ending in the near-complete eradication of the organization's remaining forces. The event is mentioned in Fallout 4.
Prelude[]
Centuries after the Great War, the town of Quincy in what was once Massachusetts had become a prosperous settlement in the Commonwealth. Its prosperity eventually became its undoing when the organized mercenary outfit known as the Gunners set their sights on the city, for which they were prompted by the orders of Clint, a former member of the Commonwealth Minutemen. Disillusioned by the petty politics and bickering that had plagued the organization for the last few decades following incidents like the fall of the Castle in 2240 and the death of General Joe Becker in 2282, Clint decided to shed his ties to his former brothers-in-arms and join forces with the Gunners, believing they carried the strength necessary to bring order to the Commonwealth where the Minutemen no longer could.[2]
The settlement might have been significantly underprepared to oppose the Gunners' arrival were it not for Mama Murphy, a psychic. In a drug-induced trance, she had a vision of the town surrounded, overrun, and its people dead or captured. At Sturges' insistence, Quincy's mayor put out a call for aid to the Commonwealth Minutemen.[3] Other residents of Quincy were skeptical of the alleged threat, especially Jun and Marcy Long, who refused to consider Murphy's warnings as anything more than a delusion brought on by her chem addiction.[4]
The deniers were proven wrong when word came of a Gunner advance party making its way towards the monorail. Despite the best efforts of the townsfolk, the mercenaries continued to make headway until Colonel Ezra Hollis' Minutemen detachment arrived and attacked the Gunners from behind.[5] A near-breakthrough turned into a rout as the Minutemen wiped out a third of the recon force. Although a dozen Gunners retreated safely, Mayor Jackson was relieved and allowed the Minutemen to enter the township, offering his house as barracks. Knowing the threat posed by the Gunners once they got organized, Col. Hollis' group immediately set to fortifying the town with assistance by Sturges, the town's mechanic. Hollis was keenly aware, however, that his group alone lacked the manpower to hold the town once the Gunners committed to a siege, so he put out a call for reinforcements himself.[6][7]
With the Minutemen's help, the town walls were repaired and the stairwell at the monorail platform blocked off to deny the Gunners access to higher ground. Meanwhile, Hollis had Sturges set up walkways and ramps over the rooftops to give the defenders a vertical advantage and a fallback method. Although they had enough supplies to withstand a long siege, the situation was grim; time went by with no response from other Minutemen groups, leaving Hollis' men and the townsfolk to stand alone against the Gunners who kept probing the town's defenses every day.[8][9][10] The truth was, the ramifications of the organization's lack of central leadership following General Becker's death had finally caught up, fracturing their former cohesion as the individual groups drifted apart due to squabbles over resources and questions over senior authority.[11][12]
The next surprise came when scouts reported the arrival of Clint at the town gates. Hollis' hopes that Clint was bringing Minutemen reinforcements were dashed when the man himself revealed in a private meeting with the mayor and colonel that he was there to negotiate the city's surrender on behalf of his Gunner superiors. Hollis angrily refused to lay down his arms, telling off the mercenary leader for betraying his former comrades. Once Clint left with a final warning for the Minutemen to abandon Quincy or be eradicated, Hollis privately feared what the Gunners could do with him at their lead.[2][13][14]
Massacre[]
After Hollis made it clear the Minutemen were not backing down, Clint went ahead with his plan. Under cover of night, the Gunners rigged explosives and blew out the nearby highway overpass's support, causing the road to collapse to the ground and allowing them to gain even higher ground from which to attack. Once the Gunners rushed up the improvised ramp, they set up a firing line and attacked the defenders from their elevated positions. The nighttime assault, combined with the decisive height advantage, resulted in a total rout for Quincy's defenders. Despite a valiant effort on their part, they never stood a chance.[15][16]
The Gunners' strategic assault overpowered the Minutemen's token defense, leading to the near-complete extermination of the town's inhabitants within an hour; the only known survivors were a small group that rallied under Hollis' subordinate Preston Garvey and escaped from the town towards the end of the massacre, alongside anyone who was wary enough to leave Quincy beforehand.[17][18] Colonel Hollis himself was captured alive and brought to the turncoat leader, where he gave a final insult before being executed by Clint as a demonstration of his new loyalty to the Gunners.[2] Others may have attempted to escape on their own, but whether any of them were successful is unclear; in the only known case, two townspeople successfully fled Quincy by boat before the massacre, but still died under unknown circumstances.[19]
Aftermath[]
The collapse of the Minutemen defense paved the way for the Gunners to move in and seize control of Quincy, turning it into a major stronghold for their organization in the subsequent weeks.[Non-game 1] Despite this, Clint dispatched a squad to track down and eliminate Garvey's group in order to fully eradicate the Minutemen, but the survivors were able to shake pursuit at Jamaica Plain.[20] For days after, the refugees continued moving northwest to get out of Gunner territory, steadily dwindling in numbers after a disastrous stopover in the ghoul-infested streets of Lexington and later being chased by raiders from Jared's gang all the way to the Museum of Freedom in Concord, where by late October, they had dropped from a total of twenty to only five.[1]
For his role in securing Quincy for the Gunners, Clint was given command of the garrison by Captain Wes and promoted to a lieutenant in the Gunners. Determined to ensure the town would not be taken in the same way it had fallen to the Gunners, Clint fortified the highway to act as the main camp and set up a radio tower to establish a link to the Gunners' headquarters.[21][Non-game 2]
The greatest impact of the Quincy Massacre was the near-complete collapse of the Commonwealth Minutemen's remaining influence in the region, with many viewing their inability to protect one town as evidence of the futility of their goals to safeguard and unify the Commonwealth. Their popular support dropped severely and any remaining members cut ties, resigning to join the rest in eking out a rough living in the wasteland.[10][22]
Despite its apparent region-wide notoriety and significance, some insular locations like Diamond City either had yet to receive the news of Quincy's destruction a month after the fact, or disbelieved it outright.[23][24]
Appearances[]
The Quincy Massacre is mentioned only in Fallout 4.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Preston Garvey: "Man, I don't know who you are, but your timing's impeccable. Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen."
The Sole Survivor: "Minutemen? So now I'm traveling backward in time?"
Preston Garvey: ""Protect the people at a minute's notice." That was the idea. So I joined up, wanted to make a difference. And I did, but... things fell apart. Now it looks like I'm the last Minuteman left standing."
The Sole Survivor: "Who are these people?"
Preston Garvey: "Just folks lookin' for a new home. A fresh start. I've been with 'em since Quincy. Lexington looked good for a while, but the Ghouls drove us outta there. A month ago, there were 20 of us. Yesterday there were 8. Now, we're 5. It's just me, the Longs - Marcy and Jun - that's old Mama Murphy on the couch. And this here's Sturges."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Quincy ruins terminal entries; Gunner terminal, Col. Hollis
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Sturges's terminal, Mama Murphy's vision
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Long's terminal, Mama Murphy
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Long's terminal, she was right
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Hollis's terminal, Setting up defenses
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Sturges's terminal, The Minutemen
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Hollis's terminal, Status report
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Long's terminal, Kyle's hurt
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Preston Garvey: "There's something I need to ask you. I guess you know I'm one of the last of the Minutemen, but I never really told you what happened to us."
The Sole Survivor: "Are you really the last Minuteman?"
Preston Garvey: "Maybe not literally. There must be a lot of former Minutemen out there who gave it up in disgust after the Quincy Massacre. But we were the last active group of Minutemen. And now, well... it's just me."
The Sole Survivor: "What was the Quincy Massacre?"
Preston Garvey: "I thought everyone in the Commonwealth knew about that by now. Where the Minutemen betrayed each other, and the people they were supposed to protect. I was with Colonel Hollis's group. A mercenary group called the Gunners was attacking Quincy; the people there called for the Minutemen to help. We were the only ones that came. The other groups... they just turned their backs. On us, and the folks in Quincy. Only a few of us got out alive. Colonel Hollis was dead. So I ended up in charge of the survivors. We never found a safe place to settle. One disaster after another... you saw how it ended, in Concord."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) - ↑ The Sole Survivor: "That's quite a promotion you just gave me."
Preston Garvey: "The leader of the Minutemen has always held the rank of General. Our last leader was General Becker. After he died back in '82, nobody could agree on who should take his place. The one good thing about being the last Minuteman is there's no one to argue with me when I say you're the new General. Now it's your job to make it more than an empty title."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) - ↑ The Sole Survivor: " I don't know the first thing about the Minutemen."
Preston Garvey: "That doesn't matter. The Minutemen of the last few years are gone, and nobody's going to miss them. We don't need any more petty politics, or squabbling over resources, or arguing over who has seniority."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) - ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Hollis's terminal, Betrayed
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Long's terminal, something's up
- ↑ Preston Garvey: "Once the Gunners got up here, there was no way to defend the rest of Quincy."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) Note: This line is spoken when at the Quincy ruins, freeway stronghold bridge to roof catwalks. - ↑ Preston Garvey: "We gave the Gunners a hell of a fight, but we never really stood a chance. There were just too many of them and too few of us."
(Preston Garvey's dialogue) Note: This line is spoken when at the Quincy ruins, southeast entrance. - ↑ Quincy survivor's note
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Sturges's terminal, Baker here
- ↑ Quincy survivor's note, and the scene of two skeletons in the boat where the note is found
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Gunner terminal, Preston
- ↑ Quincy ruins terminal entries; Gunner terminal, Tessa and Baker
- ↑ Settler 1: "Think we'll ever see the Minutemen again?"
Settler 2: "Who knows. I wouldn't count on it. If you ask me, they're done for."
Settler 1: "Yeah, you're probably right. It's too bad. We could sure use them. I guess only time will tell."
(Dialogue of settlers at pre-existing farm settlements in Fallout 4) - ↑ Sole Survivor: "I just got here, but yeah."
Piper Wright: "Shh. Play along. What was that? You said you're a trader up from Quincy? You have enough supplies to keep the general store stocked for a whole month? Huh. You hear that, Danny? You gonna open the gate and let us in? Or are you going to be the one talking to crazy Myrna about losing out on all this supply?"
(Piper Wright's dialogue) - ↑ Diamond City security officer: "Hey, you that trader, up from Quincy? You sell any ointment? I got me this itch..."
(DC security officer's dialogue)
Note: This dialogue only occurs if Piper was encountered outside the entrance to Diamond City during Jewel of the Commonwealth.
Non-game
- ↑ Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide Collector's Edition p.387: [6.25] Quincy Ruins
Due to some controversial zoning, the freeway was run right over the main street, near the buildings of this once-picturesque and historical settlement. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and John Hancock were all born here. Currently, Gunners have taken over the Quincy ruins and a section of freeway that runs through the town. This was once a Minutemen stronghold until the arrival of the Gunners and a defection of one of the Minutemen's own. - ↑ Fallout 4 Vault Dweller's Survival Guide Collector's Edition p.389: [08] Gunners Freeway Stronghold
The main Gunner base overlooks Quincy and is therefore difficult to storm. Access is via one of the rickety bridges from the apartment building or church. Scavenge the area for a Nuka Cola Quantum and health, and use the collapsed freeway section to reach the top tier of the freeway.
When threats are abated, scrounge the camp for a Mini Nuke, ammo, a steam trunk, information from a Gunner terminal, and an issue of Guns and Bullets magazine. This is also where Clint is. He’s wearing some impressive Power Armor and carries a unique laser rifle.
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